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Vernon family makes it to Everest basecamp with two four year olds in tow

They made it to Everest

It was a long haul, but they made it.

A Vernon family has successfully hiked to the basecamp at Mount Everest.

Tyson, Shannon and their four-year-old twins Bexley and Lidija made it to the base of the highest mountain in the world two days ago.

According to a post on their Facebook page, reaching their destination in Nepal was an arduous task.

At an altitude of 5,364 metres above sea level – the Okanagan is 380 metres above sea level – it took six hours for the family to hike the seven kilometres from Gorak Shep to the Everest basecamp, which in itself an elevation gain of 224 metres.

The family then returned to Gorak Shep.

“Today was tough, not going to sugar coat it. We woke up to three inches of snow covering the ground and questioned if the girls short hiking boots could even handle it. Tyson went out and checked the trail and temp and figured it was doable. The sun made a bit of an appearance warming us up within 15 mins. We continued on weaving through the boulder fields and climbing uphill. Soon the weather changed and it started blowing snow, but we pushed on. It started getting real bad and the girls were complaining of very cold feet. By this time we were just under 0.5 km from basecamp. So we made the decision to get them up into the Trail Magiks (child carriers) and push on.

“We made it! It was everything I thought it would be. The girls were so cold and upset along with the wind and snow, so it made for some really quick photos. We then put every layer back on the girls along with taking their hiking boots off and putting on their fleece-lined wool booties with hot pockets, also hot pockets in their mitts and got them loaded into the Trail Magiks, then put our pack covers over top of them to cut the wind and shield them from the snow.

“It became very icy on the way back which made for some real challenging steps. Tyson and I were beat. I sat down and it took everything in me to get L out of the carrier and my backpack off.

“High altitude really takes it out of you, and when packing an extra 45 lbs (pack and child) it’s really hard.”

Other family adventures include hiking Mount Batur in Indonesia and exploring Australia.

All of the family adventures, called Restless Crusade, are being documented on social media such as Facebook, Youtube and a blog.



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